Hobby lobby: Dueling airlines' political operations take off

By Chris Moran

Updated 9:41 pm, Wednesday, April 25, 2012

In pressing its message that international flights out of Hobby Airport will harm the local economy, United Airlines is drawing on a vast reservoir of good will built up by Continental Airlines, Houston's hometown airline until it was swallowed up by United in a merger.

Continental filled that reservoir with decades of good corporate citizenship, operatives with deep ties to City Hall and tens of thousands of dollars in donations to politicians' campaigns.

By contrast, Southwest Airlines has kept such a low profile in local political circles that the councilman whose district includes Hobby, one of Southwest's busiest locations, told a colleague last year that he did not even know how to get in touch with Southwest's governmental affairs people.

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"United's got the political muscle. They've always had the political muscle," said Robert Miller, a City Hall lobbyist who is not working for either airline. "It's not in Southwest's DNA. It's in United's DNA. It's a legacy carrier that's always been involved in politics."

And at the moment, the battle for Hobby is all about politics.

Relationship business

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The teams

United and Southwest Airlines have turned to some of City Hall's most influential insiders in making their case in the Houston air war. Southwest wants the city's approval to have a Customs facility built at Hobby to make international flights possible. United opposes it. Here's a who's who on each airline's team:

Both sides have enlisted A-list lobbying teams. United's includes Marty Stein, who until little more than a year ago was Mayor Annise Parker's agenda director; former City Attorney Anthony Hall and Greater Houston Partnership Airports Task Force Chair Michelle Baden. Southwest has former City Councilwoman Graci Saenz, and Jeri Brooks, communications director for Parker's 2009 campaign, lobbying at City Hall. State Rep. Garnet Coleman also is advising Southwest.

Darrin Hall, Parker's deputy chief of staff, called it the largest and most intense lobbying effort he has ever seen in eight years at City Hall.

Then, there is the money. A Chronicle review of campaign contribution records dating back to 2007 turned up nearly $90,000 in donations to current council members, the mayor and the 2010 inaugural celebration by Continental's employees political action committee, and past and present Continental/United executives. Parker alone has received $52,298 since the beginning of her last term as controller.

It's not just money, explained Chris Bell, a former city councilman and former congressman.

"Politics is a relationship business and those relationships are built up over time," he said. Continental built those relationships, not with just campaign cash, but by sponsoring and buying tables at local events, supporting arts organizations, lobbying and being out in the community.

In addition, United Continental Holdings is the fifth-largest donor to U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady over his 21 years in Congress, with contributions totaling $49,000. Brady has written a letter to Parker opposing a Customs facility at Hobby, echoing United's argument that it could drain officers away from an already understaffed Bush Intercontinental.

No Southwest donations turned up in the Chronicle's review. That is because there are none to be found, executives say.

"Every fight we've been in over our 40-year history, it's popular support against contributions," said Ron Ricks, Southwest's executive vice president and chief legal and regulatory officer, while lobbying Council outside chambers this week. Southwest has appealed for popular support with its "Free Hobby" Web site that prompts visitors to contact council members with messages of support for Hobby expansion.

'Carpet bombing'

Southwest appeared to have the early momentum. Calls to council offices largely have favored Southwest. Travelers predicted the airline would bring lower fares to both Houston airports and expressed their frustrations over service as United continues merging two airlines into one. Even Parker sent out a tweet complaining about United after a long flight delay.

United also rankled civic leaders when it moved 1,500 Continental corporate headquarters jobs to Chicago.

Finally, an airport-commissioned study concluded that Hobby going global would create 10,000 jobs and inject $1.6 billion a year into the local economy.

All that disintegrated for three hours last Monday as council members blistered Airport Director Mario Diaz for what they saw as a flawed, biased study, seemingly delivering United's talking points from the dais.

There is no formal deal on the table yet, as the city and Southwest would have to negotiate an agreement for the construction of a Customs facility at Hobby.

As Hall, Parker's deputy chief of staff, put it: "United's efforts so far are a bit like carpet bombing the Mojave Desert. While impressive, there is largely no target yet as of this time."

Still, with conflicting forecasts about the economic impact of an expanded Hobby, it's not a black and white issue, Miller said. A gray area is developing, and that is where lobbying can be influential.